Ch 39 - The Show Must go on.

A/N: Hey everyone. You're all in luck, because I want to have a Friday completely to myself this week, so I'm gonna upload on Thursday instead.

I think this will be the last chapter before this fic's equivalent to PVP in canon. I might be incorrect depending on how long the stuff I want to cover takes to pan out, but by chapter 41 at the latest, this show will be getting on the road, and the ride won't end until there's a car wreck.

This week's recommended story is Dragon Souls: Rekindled. Its a Dark Souls and Elder Scrolls (Skyrim) crossover. Ironically, it's a bit undead, because it recently updated for the first time in two years with no explanation from the author whatsoever, but its an absolutely amazing take on refugees of dying world ending up in a world on the cusp of being devoured by the World Eater Alduin. Also, Patches kicks the MC down some stairs basically out the gate. Seriously, I was a very happy hollow when I saw that it had updated again, so if you enjoy Skyrim or Dark Souls, go give it a read.

In fanart related news, work continues on the album cover for the band my uncle is in, but it's so slow going (and there's currently a lull in the new ideas) that my brother has decided to get started on my requests in the meantime. Apparently he has a few preliminary sketches done, but he refuses to show my them. I guess for once that I'll have to be like the rest of you when it comes to this story of mine, and I'll just have to wait and see.

Review Response:

Skeletalrepublic: another chapter just minutes before my day ends?

Is it my birthday?

Also really love how Cute Penny was in this chapter. I honestly adore how you gave her much more needed screen time

My response: I dunno; I have no idea when your birthday is, so how am I supposed to answer that question?

Penny is Most Adorable Girl, and despite Neo being Best Girl, Penny is my favorite character, hands down. (Cries in Volume 8). She's also gonna be getting more screen time.

Rando guy that likes this FF: Well, nice going. I don't know why it's almost universally liked to bully Cinder, but I'm not complaining. Once again, I'd kinda like to see the toddler against an M1A1 Abrams that would be Sun vs Vyliria in an omake. Not really much else to say, other than the fact that the count for gravity is 23 to 80 something. Will Vyliria close the gap? Or will the true archenemy prevail once again? Find out in 7 days.

My response: I don't know either, but I can assure you, it is most CERTAINLY fun to bully that bitch. Hmmm, I might or might not make that as an omake one day. Very low priority if I do decide to go for it, however. Chapter 5 has it at 23-78, in gravity's favor. I don't think I have enough potentially lethal falls planned in the SERIES for that gap to close all the way, though I don't think I have any gravity related DEATHS to widen it either. I have 2 or 3 wins for Vyliria planned in that department off the top of my head, but they're all in Atlas, and one involves upgrades to Vyliria's weapons (what, don't tell me you thought that only RWBY characters were gonna get buffed when Ironwood opens the armories for them all).

You COULD become a patron if you wanna get the next chapter early, you know... Just saying. You can also wait, but I just wanted to ensure you knew your options.

Sm0keyPanda: Precious Penny is precious. She deserves ALL the hugs. Love the chapter, and especially how close the fight was. Decades of experience vs sheer, brute force. Experience and technique don't count for everything, and I'm glad you didn't make it a cakewalk for Vyliria.

My response: Yes. The Penny Protection Platoon must always be vigilant. We lost her in canon, so we must ensure she does not come to harm in fanfics.

I'd say that this was a case of the unstoppable force vs the immovable object, but when you consider how Yang operates, and that Dark Souls is about dying your way to victory, it was more of an unstoppable force colliding head on with ANOTHER unstoppable force. A fight between Vyliria and a Maiden would essentially be the same.

Sometimes, a fight is just down to luck, though skill CERTAINLY helps. In this case, I flipped a coin, and Yang forgot that iron flesh is a bad idea when fighting someone with lightning. Vyliria made a gamble, and correctly guessed she had enough time to fully charge an old moonlight. Fate is a fickle thing, however much its pawns tend to defy it.

ScreamingStuka: (ch 37) The old Switcheroo. Awesome chapter, loved how Vyliria's doesn't take the idea of breaking Penny's trust lightly, and her seldom promise at the end there. Oh Salems Morbid band of Misfits does not know just how fucked they are. Even with what im 99% sure is a fragment of Crossbreed Priscilla scythe, it wont be enough to save them.

My response: Yup. Funny how such a minor action has such a massive impact. Vyliria had a serious internal dilemma in a time-span lasting 10 seconds at most. She HATES breaking her word, because she oftentimes views it as all she has left. But she decided that even if the immediate crisis seemed averted, that she needed to speak regardless, because the danger was still present, and it would hurt her FAR more if a friend (perma) died because she kept quiet than if she broke a promise.

Also, don't forget, Pyrrha has sunlight spear. You know, the same spell Gwyn used to quickscope the everlasting dragons.

Cinder and co haven't yet learned why its an extremely bad idea to land on Vyliria's shitlist. That's going to change soon, and they'll be learning the hard way. Though whether the lesson sticks, or they outwit the teacher, remains to be seen.

Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Souls or RWBY. Dark Souls belongs to From Software and RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth. I only own my own OC.

Also, I own the crime lord OC's I came up with in this chapter.

(Neo)

Neo sighed. The official narrative was that the rest of her team were bad sports and left as soon as they lost, but in actuality, she was forced to report on all the matches while they lurked and waited for Edgelord and the tin-can to fight each other. Apparently, Cinder wasn't rigging any other matches, so over the next two days, Neo had watched one finalist after another be eliminated. Last evening, Edgelord had gotten to the final after another two wins, and right now, Monkey-man… Sun… something-or-other, and Robo-girl were the last match happening today, with the grand finale kicking off tomorrow afternoon. She sighed again, not caring as she watched green swords that could also be lasers clash with nunchucks that were also guns. Though the clones Monkey-man had were kinda interesting. It vaguely reminded her of her own semblance.

The green eyes of the current disguise she was using her Overactive Imagination to create rolled, their owner resigning themselves to yet more boredom. Then her scroll vibrated. She blinked, before discreetly checking it. It was a message from a number she hadn't seen in a long while, simply reading: Don't know who might be trying to listen in. Check your 8:20. Neo looked behind and to the left, and saw a smirk she couldn't possibly mistake under a hooded head, tilting ever so slightly to direct her to follow.

She typed a quick message to Fire Bitch about needing to go to the bathroom, and stood up and got going. She got to the back of that section of the stands, and arrived where he was standing. "Hey Neo," Patches whispered in a barely perceptible voice.

Sylvia, she signed, referring to the name her current disguise was going by.

"Right," he said in a more normal volume. "We gotta get going, Sylvia. I know you wanna see this match to the end, but you're gonna be late for your doctor's appointment otherwise."

Neo nodded, rolling her eyes at the excuses they had to use, but she understood the situation was delicate. They navigated out of the arena proper, weaving through people in the back areas getting snacks, drinks, and memorabilia for the Vytal Festival Tournament, before slipping outside to a private air-car that was moored in one of the docks. Patches got into the driver's seat, and Neo sat in the passenger, before Patches started it up and with the press of a button, the windows polarized to the outside world, allowing one to view out but not in. With a sigh, Neo let light wash across her form as the disguise she'd had to keep up at nearly all times finally evaporated. Patches pulled his hood down, and shrugged off the jacket to reveal his iconic outfit, and gave a smirk to her that she mirrored.

"Check the glovie," he said, as he got to driving down to Vale.

Neo did, opening the glove compartment and seeing a tape inside. Hitting play, she was greeted by a voice that she didn't realize until that moment just how much she missed it.

"Hey Neo," came the voice of Roman Torchwick. "Sorry I couldn't make it myself, but not only am I a bit too high profile for this, but I'm also taking care of some other important stuff. Suffice to say, Patches and I have bailed on Fire Bitch, and we're currently working on plans to survive hers. You missed a lot, and we'll fill you in as soon as we can. I missed you, kid. Oh, and don't forget to toss your scroll."

Neo smiled at the message, before pulling out her scroll. Or rather, the scroll that Fire Bitch thought was her actual scroll. It was actually the latest in a series of burner scrolls, that were regularly discarded to make sure they were harder to track. All her music and photos were on another one that was disconnected from the CCT. She pulled out Hush and stabbed it through the burner scroll, before snapping it into multiple pieces and tossing them out the window. As she did, she felt a weight lift off her shoulders, glad to leave the machinations of that psychopath Cinder behind, and curious as to what was ahead.

()

It had been a long time since she was last in Junior's Club. His actual name was Hei Xiong, but everyone just called him Junior, and his nightclub was literally called The Club. The information broker was at his bar, polishing a glass, and waved them over as soon as he saw them. He was in the same outfit he always wore (or rather, he had a dozen outfits identical to it, not that she could belittle him for that when both she, Patches, and Roman did the same), a black vest over a white buttoned-shirt with a red tie, completed by black shoes, gloves, and dress pants. The scowl that would typically grace his expression when someone was looking to talk to him out of the blue was absent, his gray eyes, short black hair, and matching mustache and beard framing a smile instead.

"Holy crap Neo! The dust have you been all this time?" he greeted.

Forced to work under a psychopathic bitch who wants to burn Vale under the threat of death by fire, she signed, noting Junior's eyes widen when he realized she was serious. She had to admit, she didn't expect him to know sign language when she first met him, but it turned out that it was actually pretty good for covertly passing information, which was a paramount part of brokering the stuff.

"Ouch. At least you got out, though."

"Yeah, but that isn't gonna stop Cinder Fall, if that even is her real name, from trying anyways," Patches interjected.

"So that's why you and Roman called the meeting here," Junior said.

Neo blinked, because this was the first she heard of it. She cocked her head, drumming her fingers on the bar to grab attention. Patches looked over to her, and took a breath. "Right, forgot to tell you about that. See, Roman and I decided that if we were against Fire Bitch, we'd need to actually oppose her. We pulled a bunch of favors we both had to call the big crime lords in Vale for a meeting. Come to think of it, Junior, you should probably join us. Roman messaged that the last person who was invited arrived 10 minutes ago, and now they're just waiting on me."

"Right," Junior said in his usual gruff tone, "Let's get this going then." He suited actions to words, leading them behind the bar, and through a series of halls to a nondescript steel door guarded by two of his goons. They nodded, stepping to the sides and opening it, and Neo walked in first, only to nearly bump into a very familiar jacket. She looked up, and locked eyes with the grinning visage of Roman Torchwick.

"Hey Neo. Ya miss me?" he said with a grin. The next sound he made was a grunt as the mute girl latched onto him with a hug. "I'll take that as a yes. But as much as I'd love to have a reunion right now, we got business to attend to, so I promise I'll buy you some ice-cream later, okay?"

Neo reluctantly let go, and only because of the promise of free nectar of the gods. Even as she walked to the head of the table, casually leaning against the chair Roman took, she tuned out Patches and Junior sitting down as she took in the other occupants of the room. Obviously, Junior was representing his own gang, but his shtick was mostly having some hired muscle to make sure everyone else knew not to mess with his monopoly on information brokering in Vale.

The first person of note was a dark-skinned man, wearing a black tuxedo and black dress pants, eyes obscured by sunglasses. His black hair was crew-cut, and grey gloves and shoes covered his extremities. Neo recognized him as the head of Bonaparte Syndicate, Louis Bonaparte. His outfit operated in the district which held the docks, and they had a small branch on the main port of Patch. His operations were typically the smuggling of dust, and given Roman's recent (unwilling) activities, along with that of the White Fang, his gang wasn't having the best of times, and they'd apparently made up for the lost revenue by branching into the production and sale of illegal stimulants.

The next person of note was Antonio Vespelli, who ran a massive organized crime network that made up nearly all illegal activity in the commercial district of Vale. The man was the incredibly rare oxymoron that was an honorable criminal, who actually made sure that those who paid him protection money were kept safe, and tried to keep his illicit business as formal as he could. A large factor behind his success was his regular donations and outreach to the poorer residents of the commercial district, who would turn a blind eye to his and his family's activities in exchange for all the help he gave them. The olive skinned, self-styled "mafia boss" wore a brown suit with black pants and a black tie, a grey fedora with a steel-colored band sat atop a face that was clean-shaven and bore light green eyes. Unlike Bonaparte, his aura was unlocked, and his estoc, Lucky Luciano doubled as a pistol.

The last individual was a woman, and a rather interesting case. Susan Allard was a deer faunus, bearing the ears of the animal, which were capable of swivelling independent of each other, providing her with hearing that was even better than most of her race. Her gang was an interesting story. On paper, the White Fang claimed to protect the downtrodden faunus still living in the kingdoms. On paper, this would mean that they'd take it upon themselves to help the masses of faunus stuck in the poorer districts of the city in addition to their usual activities. In practice, from when they'd become violent until just a year or two ago, they'd just recruited from the area, and even attacked faunus who advocated more peaceful methods of gaining equality with humanity. Around that time, Susan had enough, and started amassing a following that rapidly grew to encompass the entirety of the poorer sections of Vale (outside the commercial district, which remained firmly in Vespelli's pocket). She also engaged in attacks on humans in the city, but only ones that discriminated against faunus. What she stole went into helping the poorer parts of her territory, humans and faunus alike. She didn't discriminate. If a human was willing to treat a faunus as their equal, they were fine by her. Her own people had clashed with the Fang on numerous occasions in recent months, protecting people that the terrorists would otherwise kill, and her ranks were likely the most diverse on Remnant, with humans and faunus in equal measure at nearly all rungs of the ladder. She was a rising star in Vale's underworld, and while she hadn't yet clashed with the other three big gangs, they all kept a wary eye on her. Her brown, shoulder length hair was straight, matching her eyes and ears, and her skin was tanned. She was somewhat muscular, often fighting alongside her underlings, and sheathed on her back was a bastard sword loaded with wind-dust, and two heavy pistols sat on her hips. If she had named her weapons, she hadn't told anyone what those names were. While she had her aura unlocked, she was also one of a small number of individuals who wore armor on top of the soul shield, black ceramic plating styled like one of the old knights of Vale sitting on top of a blood red polymer undersuit covering her from neck to toe, with a black Great War styled helmet with a built-in gas mask with blood red eye plates placed on the table.

With the big players all in the room, Roman cleared his throat and started things off. "Right, lady and gentlemen. You may wonder why I've called you all here today-"

"I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact you rode a train from Mt Glenn and crashed it into the city, bringing a literal assload of Grimm with you," Louis cut in.

"Right, if this is how we're gonna go, I'll just cut to the chase," Patches interjected. He pulled out a scroll, put it on the table, and it projected a hologram of Fire Bitch. "This is Cinder Fall. She approached us a couple months back and asked us to steal a bunch of dust for reason's she wouldn't explain. We laughed her off, and the next day she showed up and singlehandedly burnt nearly the entirety of Torchwick's gang with godsdamned magic, before kindly asking for our services again."

"Two weeks ago I would have laughed that sentence off and left this room," Antonio drawled. "Then I saw those kids in the tournament tossing around fireballs, crystals, and lightning, without dust. So I'll hear this out."

"A week later, she pulled the same stunt on the Vale chapter of the White Fang," Roman continued where Patches left off. "She basically told us to steal all the dust in the city or she'd burn us all alive, so we didn't exactly have a choice to say no. And if we did and she offed us, you'd all be next on her list."

"And you're opposing her now?" Susan asked with a single raised eyebrow.

"That is why we're having this little family get-together," Roman replied in his typical manner.

"I'm in," she concluded.

Antonio and Louis looked at her in slight surprise. "That's it?" Louis asked. "You haven't even heard what they're asking."

The faunus gang leader rolled her eyes. "This bitch has the White Fang in Vale by the balls, and is responsible for the dust shortages in the city. She already tried to kill the city with one Grimm attack, and I'm sure whatever end goal she has is worse. My people have been fighting the Fang all over the poorer parts of Vale the past few months." Neo blinked at that information. Fire Bitch must have had a lot of Fang we didn't know about running around doing Oum knows what on top of what she was having us do. "That means I'm definitely on her shit-list. You're opposing her, so it's just simple math that we pool our resources."

"Huh," Patches concluded. "And her I was thinking I'd need to go over how I found out that she was planning to cause a murder in the arena in the festival to trigger at least a level 9 Grimm attack just so she could attack Beacon itself with the Fang."

"This bitch is planning on burning Beacon?" Louis asked with incredulity.

"I may not see eye-to-eye with Ozpin and his minions, but even I wouldn't go after the institution that specifically trains people to deal with the shit outside the walls," Antonio added.

"Yeah, we figured," Roman said with a deadpan. "Unfortunately, none of us are in a position to stop her before shit kicks off, but we are in a position to do something once shit does hit the fan."

"And that would be?" Susan inquired.

"This city is gonna be neck-deep in Grimm before the week is out. Together, we have more manpower than the Vale Police Department, and what's probably an equivalent amount of firepower as well," Roman began. "We called this meeting because together, we can do something to throw a rather large 'Fuck you' in Cinder's general direction. We pool our resources, and coordinate a defense of the city proper. Us holding the ground here means more huntsmen and Atlesian tin-cans at Beacon to stand between Fire Bitch and what she wants."

Louis leaned forwards "And what is her goal?"

"I'm assuming you've all heard the Tale of the Four Seasons when you were younger, correct?" Roman questioned the gathered crime lords. What does that have to do with anything? Neo wondered.

"Yeah," Antonio responded, "but what does that ha- wait, don't tell me she's a fucking Maiden."

"Half a Maiden, actually," Patches said. "I'm fairly certain it's Fall, but I'm not totally sure. I'm also not sure how she stole half of the actual Fall Maiden's powers, but I did recently figure out that Ozpin has her hidden somewhere in Beacon. Everything Cinder is planning is just a diversion to get a shot at finishing what she started."

"And just how did you figure this all out if she wasn't telling you anything?" Susan asked skeptically.

"I've been around the block quite a few times, so to speak," Patches began. "And whoever's doing Cinder's codework isn't the only person who can make a computer virus. And while it's not much easier, it's still easier just getting into Beacon's secure servers instead of hacking the CCT."

"Wait, what?" Junior shouted, speaking for the first time since the meeting started.

"Yeah, whoever is doing her tech, they're good," Roman chimed in. "So in addition to your men helping us out in this, we'll be relying on your off-the-grid network for the relaying of information, planning, and coordinating all this."

"All right, I'm in," Junior said.

"You'll have the Syndicate's men and resources backing this," Louis said.

Antonio stood up. "This bitch is attacking Vale. That includes the people who I protect. And I make damn sure I protect my investments. Where do we start?"

Roman smirked, standing up, grabbing his cane from its place leaning on the other side of his chair, and giving it a twirl before catching it by the handle. "Well, that's what I've been waiting for."

()

Neo was back at the bar. The grand strategy of things didn't concern her, and while she wasn't particularly happy leaving Roman's side again, he did promise to get her ice-cream, and if she had endured this long, she could wait a couple hours more. She swung her legs in the air, enjoying a glass of pink lemonade on one of the stools at the bar.

"Neo?" she blinked, turning to a voice she recognized. Two pale-skinned teenage girls with black hair and pale green eyes were walking over. Neo gave a smile and a wave, happy to see the Malachite twins for the first time in months.

Melanie had her hair long, with a slight fringe up front that covered her eyebrows, which were heavily highlighted by cyan makeup. Her off white strapless dress shifted to a cyan as it reached the bottom of its skirt, a cyan, layered, feathery tulle that went closer to the ground than the dress did and a small white bow in the center of the bust. Her waist bore a white belt with two silver chains on the front, a cyan gemstone taking the place of its clasp, and a pair of cyan, feather-like wings extended from the back. Her white, thigh boots had red lace-up detailing, with blades fitted to the rear of the boot that connected to the heels. Twin silver chains made their way from the back of the weaponized footwear, and connected to a layer armored piece on their the boots were cyan stockings with lace-trimmed tops that peek above the boots and garter straps that Neo assumed connected to her underwear. Her arms bore a pair of white forearm length gloves, with cyan lace detailing running from wrist to forearm, and a silver vambrace on her left one. Her outfit was finished by a white flower-shaped hairpin above her left ear, a white feather scarf with a pair of short red feathers surrounding a long cyan one on running down the left side of her, and a silver pauldron on her left shoulder.

Her sister, Miltiades (but everyone called her Miltia), had a short bob-cut, with a straight fringe that also obscured her eyebrows, and her eyes were framed by heavy red makeup. Her red, strapless dress was patterned with newspaper articles, which Neo never bothered checking what they actually said. The dress bore a black and dark-red lace layered tulle, that hung down more than the dress itself did, and it had an off centred belt with a bow around the waist. Her red, thigh-high boots had black heels and soles in addition to a white lace-up detail. A pair of silver chains ran around from the back of the boots, connecting to a layer of armor plating on the front of the footwear. Her lacy black stockings peeked out over the top of her boots, and were accompanied by black garter straps that made their way under her skirt before disappearing from view. Below her shoulders were a pair of black, fingerless, forearm length gloves with red lining around the tips of the fingers, sporting a newspaper design similar to the dress, a light brown frill trim peeking out of the ends. Her claws sat over the gloves. Rounding out her getup was a large, long, wing-like red feather and two short white feathers above her left ear, and a short black fur shrug held by four beaded chains with a white gemstone in the center.

They sat to either side of her, and she smiled at both. "Where on Remnant have you been, Neo?" Melanie asked.

Long story, she signed, waiting for Miltia to translate for her sister. The quieter of the two, she had bothered learning sign language from Junior after she became friends with the twins, not satisfied with waiting for her to type messages out on her scroll. Neo appreciated the gesture.

"How so?" Miltia asked.

Some bitch had our lives in the palm of her hand for a while, and we only managed to bail recently. Earlier today, in my case, Neo said. Since Junior's on board with the plan Roman and Patches are cooking up to fight her, we'll be working together again soon enough.

"Oh, I can't wait," Melanie said. "You got any good stories from when you were working under the bitch?"

Quite a few, she began, before stretching her fingers and getting to work, starting with the time she fought Edgelord at the docks.

()

Delicious. Creamy. Thick. White. Absolutely divine as it entered her mouth. The fact that it was from Roman just made it that much better as she ran it along her tongue before she swallowed it down. The richly textured vanilla ice-cream the spoon had just delivered to her mouth was amazing. Neo sighed with pleasure she savored the delectable treat.

"Bloody hell, it's like watching Otzdarva all over again, except with ice-cream instead of mossfruit," Patches muttered, interrupting her date with the gift from the gods. She cocked her head to the side, and looked at him.

"Right, right, we'd said we'd explain everything, so here goes," the bald man began. "Remnant is an old world, Neo. Older than you can imagine. You aren't the first humanity to live on it, or even the second. You're the third, and I've been around since when the first was still young."

Neo looked over to Roman, to confirm that Patches was joking, and the solemn nod and muted expression he gave made her thoughts crash to a halt. A metal spoon clattered into a bowl still half-full of ice-cream, and her eyes widened.

Roman sighed, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I had a similar reaction, Neo. Take your time to process this."

Over a minute later, she looked to Patches, nodding, and he continued. "Remember how I said Fire Bitch actually stole part of the powers of the Fall Maiden? How the four Maidens of the Seasons were actually real?" At her nod, he pressed on. "So are the Brother Gods, and the Grimm have a queen of sorts named Salem, whose goal is to gather four relics left behind by the gods, each hidden under a huntsman academy and only able to be accessed by a specific Maiden. As far as I know, if she gets all of them together, it calls the gods back to Remnant, and then they'll smite everyone again. Because they already did that the first time Salem pissed them off. I only survived that because of my curse ward greatshield," he finished as a mutter mostly aimed towards himself.

Neo just blinked at him, too shocked by the bombshells she'd just received to do much else. So Patches continued. "I'm undead, which means I have a curse that prevents me from both aging and staying dead, though you can still kill me. Not that I'd make it easy for anyone," he joked. "Vyliria, the edgy girl with the scythes, is one too."

Neo raised a hand to signal him to pause. That explains a lot.

"Yeah, but I don't know how she's still about and kicking." Neo went to gesture to him again, but was interrupted as a yawn snuck up on her. Glancing at the clock of the room in the back of The Club that Junior had lent them, she realized that it was past midnight, and she'd been up for a rather worldview shaking day that had been over 16 hours.

"Right, as much as there still needs to be said, shit will probably be hitting the fan considering tomorrow has the final match for the tournament, so those of us who can sleep," Roman gave a sideways glance to Patches as he spoke, "probably should sleep."

Reminded of the impending apocalypse, a frown graced Neo's face. Roman looked her in the eyes, putting a hand on both her shoulders. "Hey kid, we're together, and we'll make it through this. I promise."

Neo stood up and gave him another hug. The first one could be forgiven as she hadn't seen him in forever, but besides that she wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't private, because she had an image to keep up. Still, this was private, so she demonstrated her affection with full force. It was a hug that he reciprocated this time around, and she smiled as she told herself that they'd still be together after all of this was over.

"Sooo, are you gonna finish that ice-cream, ooor…" Under any other circumstances, she'd say Patches ruined the moment, but considering that he reminded her that perfectly good ice-cream was melting, she'd let it slide this time. Both Roman and Patches chuckled as she dove back into her desert with wild abandon.

()

A/N: Finally, I can write some Neo! AN ENTIRE CHAPTER OF NEO! It's absolutely criminal (no pun intended; stop looking at me like that Yang) that I haven't had an opportunity to give Best Girl the spotlight for this long. Also, for the longest time, I was tempted to change this chapter's name to "Neo! Sweet, Gratuitous, Neo!"

The crime lord meeting was something that was initially planned in mid December of 2020, and I got to writing this chapter in early January of 2021. I wanted a French last name for the guy (for completely arbitrary reasons. Seriously, I just decided I wanted it that way and so I did), and since Napoleon doesn't exist in RWBY, that's what I used.

Yes, the mafia boss has a weapon named after one of the most infamous mafia bosses to exist IRL, who apparently helped the US invade Sicily in WW2. You learn something new every day.

The last crime boss I came up with was entirely original, and she came into my head in a genius strike of the muse that had me frantically tapping away ideas and characteristics, personality, backstory, etc on my phone... while I was on the toilet... My muse strikes very hard, and very well, but sometimes decides to strike at very strange times. Suffice to say, I plan to play around with these people and their gangs in this side-arc I have going on.

Also, props to Sm0keyPanda, for coining the term Mafia Militia on p atreon. What an amazing way to describe them, and had me smiling every time I thought about it.

You know, the Malachite twins barely got used in canon. However, this isn't canon, so I'm going to take an opportunity to play around with them for a bit. And the other good part about them barely being used is that their characters are nearly a blank slate, so as long as I stick to the vague guidelines that are there, I don't have to worry about writing them OOC. On a side note, how in Gwyn's name does Miltia's dress have the words "A New York la pop art di Alborghetti" when New York doesn't exist on Remnant? This was a problem that left the potential to plot holes and immersion breaking in my story. I solved this dilemma by simply opting to never address what the newspaper articles actually say on her dress. Ever. And neither will any of you. Got it?

Lastly, just because they are no longer a part of the Plan of Ultimate Nefarious Evil (name patent pending), doesn't mean that RWBY's best criminal duo and the one-and-only Unbreakable Patches aren't going to play a part in the plot of this story.

Also, anyone who thought I was going with something explicit instead of ice-cream, you're all Gwyndamn perverts.

(remove any spaces and underscores, replace any (slash) a "/" or ".", because FFN is annoying like that)

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